Vol. A most royal one: the centurions, and their charges, distinctly billeted, already in the entertainment', and to be on foot at an hour's warning.

Rom. I am joyful to hear of their readiness, 5 and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company.

Vol. You take my part from me, sir; I have the most cause to be glad of yours. Rom. Well, let us go together.

10

Enter Coriolanus, in mean apparel, disguis'd and 15 with anon.

Enter a third Servant. The first meets him. 3 Serv. What fellow's this?

1 Serv. A strange one as ever I look'd on: I cannot get him out o' the house: Pr'ythee, call 20my master to him.

1 Serv. Wine, wine, wine! What service is here! I think our fellows are asleep.

Enter another Sercing-man.

2 Ser. Where's Cotus? my master calls for 55 him. Cotus!

That is, though not actually encamped, yet already in pay.-To entertain an army is to take them into pay. Companion was formerly used in the same sense as we now use the word fellow.

Auf. What is thy name?

Cor. A name unmusical to the Volces' ears, And harsh in sound to thine.

5

Auf. Say, what's thy name?
Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
Bears a command m't: though thy tackle's torn,
Thou shew'st a noble vessel: What's thy name?
Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown: Know'st thou
Auf. I know thee not:-Thy name? [me yet?
Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done 10
To thee particularly, and to all the Volces,

Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
My surname, Coriolanus: The painful service,
The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country, are requited
But with that surname; a good memory',
And witness of the malice and displeasure [mains:
Which thou shouldst bear me, only that name re-
The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;
And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be
Whoop'd out Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth: Not out of hope,
Mistake me not, to save my life; for if
I had fear'd death, of all the meni' the world
I would have 'voided thee: but in mere spite,
To be full quit of those my banishers,
Stand I before thee here. "Then if thou hast
A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge
Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those maims
Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee
straight,

[tunes

And make my misery serve thy turn; so use it,
That my revengeful services may prove
As benefits to thee; for I will fight
Against my canker'd country with the spleen
Of all the under fiends. But if so be
Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more for-
Thou art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am
Longer to live most weary, and present
My throat to thee, and to thy ancient malice:
Which not to cut would shew thee but a fool;
Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,
And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
It be to do thee service.

Auf. O Marcius, Marcius,

[heart

Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart,
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell
thee,

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lose mine arm for 't: Thou hast beat me out
Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy.
Marcius,

15 Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that
Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in,
20 And take our friendly senators by the hands;
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

25

30

Cor. You bless me, gods!

[have

Auf, Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt
The leading of thine own revenges, take
The one half of my commission, and set down,-
As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st
Thy country's strength and weakness,-thine own

ways:

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely visit them in parts remote,

To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:
Let me commend thee first to those, that shall
35 Say, yea, to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: Most
welcome!
[Exeunt.

140

1 Serv. Here's a strange alteration!

2 Serv. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a false report of him.

1 Serv. What an arm he has! He turn'd me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would 45 set up a top.

[say, 50

Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my
A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter
Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and
'Tis true; I'd not believe them more than thee,
All-noble Marcius.-Let me twine

Mine arms about that body, where against

2 Serp. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: He had, sir, a kind of face, methought,-I cannot tell how to term it.

1 Serv. He had so; looking, as it were,Would I were hang'd, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

2 Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: He is simply the rarest man i' the world.

1 Serv. I think he is: but a greater soldier

My grained ash an hundred times hath broke, 55 than he, you wot one.

And scarr'd the moon with splinters! Here I clip
The anvil of my sword; and do contest

As hotly and as nobly with thy love,

As ever in ambitious strength I did

Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I lov'd the maid I marry'd; never man

2 Serv. Who? my master?

1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that.

2 Serv. Worth six of him,

1 Serv. Nay, not so neither: but I take him to

60 be the greater soldier.

2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how i. e. disgraceful diminutions of to

Memory for memorial. 2 i. e. resentment or revenge. territory.

to say that for the defence of a town, our gene- peace, as far as day does night; it's sprightly, ral is excellent.

1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too.

Enter a third Servant.

waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull'd', deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children,

3 Serv. O, slaves, I can tell you news; news, 5 than war's a destroyer of men. you rascals.

Both. What, what, what? let's partake.

3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations, I had as lieve be a condemn'd man. Both. Wherefore? wherefore?

3 Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general; Caius Marcius.

1 Serv. Why do you say, thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him.

2 Serv. Come, we are fellows, and friends: he was ever too hard for hin; I have heard him say so himself.

2 Serv. 'Tis so; and as war, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher; so it cannot be denied, jbut peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

1 Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one ano

10ther.

15

1. Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on 't: before Corioli, he scotch'd 20 him and notch'd him like a carbonado.

2 Sero. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broil'd and eaten him too.

I Serv. But, more of thy news?

3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as 25 if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o' the table: no question ask'd him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctines himself with's hand',and turns up the white o' the 30 eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' the middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday: for the other has half, by the intreaty and grant of the whole table. He will go, he says, and sowle the porter of 35 Rome gates by the ears: He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage poll'd 3.

2 Serv. And he's as like to do 't, as any man I can imagine.

3 Serv. Do't? he will do't: For, look you, sir, 40 he has as many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, (as it were) durst not (look you, sir,) shew themselves (as we term it) his friends, whilst he's in directitude.

1 Serv. Directitude! What's that?

3 Serv. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

1 Serv. But when goes this forward?

3 Serv. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

45

150

2 Sero. Why, then we shall have a stirring 55 world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers. 1 Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds

4

[Exeunt Citizens.

Alluding, improperly, to the act of crossing upon any strange event. * That is, drag him down by the ears into the dirt.-The word is derived from sow, i. e. to take hold of a person by the ears, as a dog seizes one of these animals. 'That is, bared, cleared. * i. e. full of rumour, full of materials for discourse. ? i. e. soften'd and dispirited, as wine is when burnt and sweeten'd. i. e. ineffectual in times of peace like these.

Mes. It is spoke freely out of many mouths,

(How probable, I do not know) that Marcius,

Men. What's the news? what's the news?
Com. Your temples burned in their cement; and
Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd
Into an augre's bore.

Men. Pray now, the news?-
[news?
You have made fair work, I fear me:-Pray, your
If Marcius should be joined with the Volces,—

Com, It!

30 He is their god; he leads them like a thing
Made by some other deity than nature,
That shapes man better: and they follow him,
Against us brats, with no less confidence,
Than boys pursuing summer butter-flies,
35 Or butchers killing flies,

40

Men. You have made good work,

You, and your apron-men; you that stood so much
Upon the voice of occupation, and

Bru. But is this true, sir?.

Com. Ay; and you'll look pale

The breath of garlick-eaters'!

Com. He'll shake your Rome about your ears.

Men. As Hercules did shake down mellow You have made fair work!

[fruit.

45 Before you find it other. All the regions
Do smilingly' revolt; and, who resist,

Are mock'd for valiant ignorance,

[him?

And perish constant fools. Who is't can blame
Your enemies, and his, find something in him.

50

Men. We are all undone, unless

The noble man have mercy.

Com. Who shall ask it?

The tribunes cannot do 't for shame; the people
Deserve such pity of him, as the wolf

Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome; 55 Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they And vows revenge as spacious, as between Should say, Begood to Rome, they charg'd him even

That is, without assessors; without any other suffrage. 2 i. e. talk. 3 Dr. Johnson reniarks, that to atone, in the active sense, is to reconcile, and is so used by our author. To atone here is, in the neutral sense, to come to reconciliation. To atone is to unite. * Occupation is here used for mechanicks, men occupied in daily business. "To smell of garlick was once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara. It appears also, that garlick was once much used in England, and afterwards as much out of fashion. Hence, perhaps, the cant denomination Pil-garlick for a deserted fellow, a person left to suffer without friends to assist him. 6 Alluding to the apples of the Hesperides. To reFolt smilingly, is to revolt with signs of pleasure, or with marks of contempt. As

7

If he were putting to my house the brand
That should consume it, I have not the face [hands,
To say,' Beseech you, cease.-You have made fair
You, and your crafts! you have crafted fair!
Com. You have brought

A trembling upon Rome, such as was never
So incapable of help.

Tri. Say not, we brought it.

[like beasts, Men. How! Was it we? We lov'd him; but, And cowardly nobles, gave way to your clusters, Who did hoot him out o' the city.

3 Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us: That we did, we did for the best; and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will. Com. You are goodly things, you voices! Men. You have made you Good work, you and your cry!—-Shall us to the Com. O, ay; what else? [Exe. Com. and Men. Sic. Go, masters, get you home, be not dismay'd; 45 These are a side, that would be glad to have This true, which they so seem to fear. Go home, And shew no sign of fear.

1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, masters,

let's home. I ever said, we were i' the wrong, 50 For I dare so far free him) made him fear'd, when we banish'd him.

i. e. As they hooted at his departure, they will roar at his return; as he went out with scoffs, he will come back with lamentations. 2 Á kind of eagle. The sense is, The virtue which delights

to commend itself, will find the surest tomb in that chair wherein it holds forth its own commendations, ACT

^ į e. What is already right, and received as such, becomes less clear when supported by supernuinerary proofs.